Tome 2. (I'm much less intersting now)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Tome 2. (I'm much less intersting now)

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

Can I add a few things to the Tome? Since my Corvair was Deep-Sixed by a drunk I've been working on other projects to keep me sane.
I was browsing a local antique mall last weekend and happened across a 1928 Crosley model 706 Showbox and RCA Radiola 100 speaker. The pair were on sale for $60. The price was right and 20 minutes later both were in my trunk heading home. The Showbox was in great shape, with no pot metal rot in the tuning capacitor tank, dial drive gear, or all the other usual places for radios of this era.
The radio was missing a 71a output tube and the Mershon filter capacitor was long gone, replaced by a 1940's era Mallory electrolytic can mounted to a custom made circular steel plate. A neatly done repair made at some point in the past, The Mallory had also shorted from age. I replaced the filter with two new 10uf 450v electrolytics, and the other metal cased 2-5uf oil filled? caps with electrolytics of similar values, leaving the original parts disconnected but still in place. With a new 71a, 2 meg resistor replacing the grid leak, and a 75ft antenna, the set plays great.

The Radiola speaker needed a couple of patches to the cone which I made with cigarette rolling papers and diluted white glue, from behind, in order to hide the repair as best I could.
One thing I learned from this project, the 71a and other early directly heated triodes are freaking expensive!

Up Next: 1964 Zenith Handcrafted Color TV.

In this case The Quality Went in Before the Name Went on...

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:25 on Dec 27, 2015

# ¿ Dec 27, 2015 10:15

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 01:49

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

LobsterboyX posted:

two great pieces - the radio is awesome. For 60 bucks you can't do much better, a friend was recently selling off one of his earl (brand name escapes me) radio like that - (two piece, radio and speaker) for $300 and I thought that was a deal.. I think you know what you are doing, whereas when I get them, check the caps, and see if it works..

Speaking of rebuilt:

the stove is now complete

so what goes with a completed stove?

a 1954 Kelvinator Magic Cycle - built by Nash

and I had them paint the dishwasher as well

A visitor recently pointed out that our kitchen reminds them of my car:

Speaking of cars, I recently discovered I'm not the only idiot dumb enough to have a model A in my neighborhood

a few weeks back I was coming home from work and I saw this beauty parked out on the street and another neighbor helping an older gentleman out with his other model a truck

What do you know? They clued me in to a few other guys in the hood that have old stuff lurking.

A few weeks ago I had a garage sale that turned out to be rather successful, but a few people loved the cars and one guy in partucular said he had a 56 eldorado, he showed me a few crumby pics on his phone and told me he'd be back with the car, he didn't come back that day but a few weeks later I heard something rumbling and sure enough, he came back!

Another recent aquisition is this beautiful set of 1930s art deco chairs:

although they look like leather, they are actually oil cloth and they are in really really nice shape. It's a parlor set so it was the two chairs as well as a love seat. The girl we got them from instantly became our friend and we've been mildly searching for more deco furnature after we've sold off most of the contents of the house.

I think they look good there. what the hell is that glowing thing behind the chair?

Its a 1948 Rockola jukebox:

It's a long story, but essentially my mom had promised to buy us a jukebox when we got our first house.. so we got a jukebox.

it plays 20 78RPM records with its original amp, and selection system. there is no free play setting, you have to feed it to hear it. It is so loud it shakes the house and can be heard down the street.

the funny thing is that 45RPM became the norm only a few years later and Rockola basically pulled these machines out of the distributors hands in favor of newer machines. So a lot of these particular boxes saw a very short life span in the wild, and all these years later, there are more of them that are in good shape than not.

I have a friend who restores jukeboxes and he's currently building me a remote volume and reject unit as well as a bluetooth receiver for it.

In other news! I finally got the garage cleaned out enough to start storing my own stuff in it, its been at least 10-12 years since a vehicle has been inside the garage

Sadly I quickly filled it up with furniture that I need to sell, but at least the car now has a permanent home - I'd love to have 2 vehicles in there, but its going to be a bit before we can liquidate all this furniture.

another new resident of the garage is this 1954 Craftsman "150" drill press that I got for under 100 bucks.

the stella chalices were for my buddy and I to celebrate not giving ourselves hernias getting this thing out of the car.

There's more for later...

Thanks for the kind words on the radio and TV. I'll have to post more on the Zenith later. The appliances in your kitchen are super cool but it could really use a Frigidaire Flair, the modular stove/oven that has a soft spot in my heart. Also, does that Kelvinator have the optional carousel shelves? When it comes to vintage dishwashers, I actually know a guy here in the Cleveland area that restores dishwashers from the 50's and 60's. I still razz my parents for trashing their fully functional 1965 Kitchenaid when they renovated the kitchen back in 2004. They've gone through two dishwashers since then.

In other news, I've recently started collecting Transistor radios made in the USSR.

This is a Soviet produced VEF 202 transistor radio, made in Riga, Latvia in 1971. Adjusted for inflation, and considering the black market rate of conversion of Soviet Rubles to US dollars, It cost a soviet citizen the equivalent of 3-4 hundred US dollars to purchase one. I like to call it the Comecon answer to the Zenith Transoceanic, since it covers the Longwave, Medium Wave (US AM Band), 52,49,41,31,and 25 Meter Shortwave bands. Build quality is quite good, other than the cheap, brittle thermoset plastic cabinet, and it draws remarkably little current when operating, around 15-25MA. A set of six D Cell batteries should last for months with average use. VEF radios were popular with Dissidents who wanted to listen to Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other western broadcasts. It's electronic design is almost identical to the first USSR made multiband transistor radio, The VEF Spidola, from 1961.

LobsterboyX posted:

two great pieces - the radio is awesome. For 60 bucks you can't do much better, a friend was recently selling off one of his earl (brand name escapes me) radio like that - (two piece, radio and speaker) for $300 and I thought that was a deal.. I think you know what you are doing, whereas when I get them, check the caps, and see if it works..

Actually as vintage electronics repair goes, that's the way to do it. Power the unit up slowly with a variac, and watch for excessive current draw using a Kill-a-watt/sniff for bad smells, and touch the electrolytic capacitor cans to see if they're getting hot. If the electrolytic cans are getting hot, or you hear a loud 60hz hum that the volume control has no effect on, power down immediately. Replace all the electrolytic filter caps. The wax paper/plastic encased paper caps may or may not be shorted or leaky, but they most likely are. Replace them with mylar caps.

Sadly, 1920's radios aren't worth that much now. The early radio era bubble popped in the mid to late 90s.

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:19 on Mar 9, 2016

# ¿ Mar 9, 2016 09:25

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

Jonny 290 posted:

I came across a website once that had instructions for converting one of the standard-design "All American Five" AM radios made by the millions in the 30s through 50s into a flea-powered AM transmitter. Line out from your ipod or whatever and you can tune in any old AM set in the house to it. And you get the bandwidth restrictions of old AM too, so it sounds pretty cool and vintagey.

That mod is super easy, but there are some improvements that can be made. Use the audio output transformer as a modulation transformer, replace all of the the audio coupling capacitors with caps valued .1uf or greater for wider audio bandwidth (.5uf makes the transmitter sound like some of the high fidelity wideband AM stations that existed in the early 60's) and use the 25L6/25C5/50L6/50B5/50C5 audio output tube as a final RF amplifier for a whopping 1-1.5w of RF power. Also, if you don't want to potentially kill yourself/ incinerate whatever audio source you connect to the audio input, install a 1:1 isolation transformer in line with the AC input. AA5 radios tie one side of the AC line directly to chassis ground, and ALL of them used non-polarized plugs so that they could be used in backwater rural communities that were still on 110V DC power into the mid 1960s.

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Mar 11, 2016

# ¿ Mar 11, 2016 09:42

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

Hey LobsterboyX,
Would you be interested in a vintage Steelcase desk from the press pool of a small newspaper that suddenly became the national press headquarters/lodging/diner for hundreds of journalists covering the Kent State Massacre?

# ¿ Jul 28, 2016 08:41

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

Adding another vintage TV to the Tome.
1957 RCA RCA 14-S-7052.
It took about 20 capacitors and a new Horizontal output tube to get it working. The Picture tube is weak, but I was able to use the rejuvenation function on my Sencore CR-31a CRT tester to buy a little time until i can find a good CRT. For now it works well enough and is serving well as my back porch TV. A leatherworker from the local Ren Faire is making me a new handle for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE6zMgv_4ec
Bonus back porch action shot taken just after Cleveland won the NBA finals and our curse was broken.

Lobsterboy, sorry for making GBS threads up your thread btw.

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Aug 7, 2016

# ¿ Aug 5, 2016 07:55

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

Seat Safety Switch posted:

How are you getting that TV to work as an actual TV? Do you have some kind of digital OTA adapter for it?

It's a Roku fed into a used cable tv head end modulator tuned to Channel 9 connected to a wire dipole antenna cut to the proper length for the frequency of channel 9 and stapled to my attic trusses. These old cableco modulators put out over a watt of power so I have it turned down just enough to cover my house and yard. I use my iPhone to control the Roku. The whole setup is hidden in a bedroom closet.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2016 03:52

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

Seat Safety Switch posted:

I like how much more complicated you've made this than the solution I had in my head.

Congratulations.

I have a bunch of old TV's around the house and the cheap RF modulators you can buy at retail stores almost universally put out a crappy, often off frequency, noisy RF signal that old tube tv tuners seem to hate. Sometimes I like to power up my whole collection to show people and the hacked together transmitter lets me feed video to all my sets without running coax all over the house. Plus I can take my 1964 Singer 8" portable and 10lb accessory lead acid battery pack that fits in a shoulder bag and watch netflix in the backyard while grilling or chilling out. (This was never about convenience or simplicity lol.)

Jackie the Mick posted:

Did someone say Predicta?

I just picked this up a couple of weeks ago. I've been looking for one for years, but they've always been either WAY out of my price range, too far away, or utter garbage. I saw this one on craigslist and it was only an hour away, and, though the picture was small and lovely, it looked alright. So, I texted the guy and started haggling. Once we settled on a price, I went to look at it, and was very pleasantly surprised. First off, I thought it was a 17" Princess model in the picture, but it turned out that it was actually a 21" 1958 Holiday WITH the elusive cart. Plus, it turned on! The seller told me that he never actually hooked it up to anything or tried to get a channel on it, it was just office decoration. I could tell he wasn't lying because the screen cover was so dirty on the inside that even when it was turned on you couldn't even see the static. Anyway, I loaded it up and took it home, then my wife and I took it apart, and cleaned it. (so, so smelly) It looked great, and powered up, but it was another week until I actually sat down and adjusted everything well enough that we could watch anything on it. I've not even begun re-capping it yet, but I'm pretty pleased so far.

The screen covers for Predictas were made of some sort of corn based cellulosic plastic that develops a white powdery film with age and smells like the devil's rear end in a top hat when you clean it. Ford used to use the stuff for interior parts.
Just a word of warning, due to the way that philco designed the chassis on those sets, they are a nightmare to recap. Lots of wire-wrapped connections and you have to unsolder dozens of connections and ground stakes just to get to the under side of the brittle rear end phenolic circuit board that has been baked by hot tubes for years. Don't even get me started about Couplates. The Predicta bankrupted Philco and most TV shops refused to work on them when they were new. It's kinda sad because they look so drat cool.
Shango066 did a good set of videos on restoring one of the Barberpole sets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXupqHf19Q4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Usz0FUgAU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLxwArfLn5Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg_QDbhARqc

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Sep 2, 2016

# ¿ Sep 2, 2016 04:49

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

Welp, Never say never, I guess.

(photo taken after I pulled the Chassis, I have all the knobs.)
A Predicta followed me home today... It's a Tandem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvAgLFg57eE
The CRT is attached to a 25ft lead shielded cable so that you can move the CRT around the living room and use the TV chassis as an end table/remote speaker/giant remote control. These are almost as rare as the Barberpole Predicta because the idea of dragging around a 30lb picture tube assembly and 15lb lead shielded cable was totally impractical even in 1959, especially since Zenith, Magnavox, GE, and RCA were already selling TV's with ultrasonic and RF (RCA)remote controls that fit in the palm of your hand by the time the Tandem came to market.
It's a perfect example of why Philco went Bankrupt in 1960.
At $150, It was complete, and too cheap to pass up.

The chassis is roached. This is gonna be fu... :unsmigghh:

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:42 on Sep 26, 2016

# ¿ Sep 26, 2016 08:46

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

joat mon posted:

Something followed me home the other day.

My wife said I could keep it.

Oh god.
Does it have the power back glass? :fap:

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Sep 28, 2016

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 09:41

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

It's....ALIVEEEE!!!!!
MUAHAHAHA!!! :science:

I replaced all the open power resistors on the filament string, did a complete recap of the paper caps, and now I have *video (*sometimes)
There is a cold solder joint somewhere on the main video PCB, as occasionally I lose input signal to the video amp tube and the screen flickers to a blank white raster. The sound is also way out of alignment, but meh, It's a start.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2016 07:21

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

Delivery McGee posted:

Would it be possible to put "modern" (i.e. color CRT) innards in one of those, or are they a non-(or rather pre-)standard size/shape? (Yeah, blasphemy, but equivalent to putting an LS in an old car ... or a Mopar Elephant in a '55 Chevy. )

Most likely not possible. The Predicta CRT's were pretty drat shallow, had an insane deflection angle, and had a neck shorter than most color TV sets made in the 90's. Trying to fit a shadow mask three gun color tube into a predicta housing would require major modification.
Back in 2004, Samsung, LG, and Philips actually released ultra slim CRT's that were 16" deep, screen face to tube socket. They sold like four of them before reasonably priced Plasma and LCD displays hit the market and ate their lunch before it was even served.

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Oct 28, 2016

# ¿ Oct 28, 2016 08:56

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

LobsterboyX posted:

going down the rabbit hole with CB's pretty much everyone I know has been getting on this - its a poo poo load of fun

You need an age appropriate CB under that dash.

Yes, that Courier has a chrome plated cabinet.

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Mar 29, 2017

# ¿ Mar 28, 2017 10:18

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

I have another addition to The Tome. This time it's a 1945 Detrola 568 Radio. The model 568 was originally designed and built to fill a government contract for a "Morale" Radio for US troops involved in the invasion of mainland Japan (Operation Downfall) in WWII. The war ended before the production contract could be completed, leaving Detrola with thousands of metal cased AM/Shortwave radios painted in olive drab. Detrola decided to make lemonade out of lemons, cut the welded-on carry handles off, paint them hammer-tone silver, and sell them to desperate US consumers who hadn't been able to buy new radios since 1942.
This radio was purchased on ebay two weeks ago. on Monday evening I repainted the cabinet in original hammer-tone silver and recapped the chassis. I found a new Detrola decal to replace the one that had been lost to rust and abuse, it's in the mail and should be here soon.

Before Photo:

# ¿ May 20, 2017 08:33

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

DJ Commie posted:

I remembered this thread and have been beinge-watching Mr. Carlson's Lab videos on YoutTube to learn more about vacuum tube stuff, since I have an electronics background but knew nothing about tubes at all. In fact, I just picked up a Truetone D4630 radio from Goodwill for $1 to get some re-capping action and get some use from the old HeathKit tube tester I've had in a box for half my lifetime.

Crazy thing about the radio is that it is remote mount head, with cables from the volume/tuning knobs. There's even a secondary drive from the tuning knob to operate the indicator across the range. I'll get some pictures, its downright ingenious.

That Truetone is an early post-war aftermarket Auto Radio sold by Western Auto. It'll run on 6 volts, positive ground. Also, the mechanical vibrator it uses to convert 6VDC to AC to be fed to a transformer and stepped up to 250-300V then rectified again and filtered for the tube b+ voltage is almost always frozen. Once you crack the vibrator open, it's basically like servicing a set of points in a mechanical ignition. Shango066 on youtube shows you how to do it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWyaqaWahEE

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 08:12 on May 28, 2017

# ¿ May 28, 2017 08:07

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

The reproduction Detrola decal went on pretty well for being a water slide.
I used Microsol to blend the decal with the paint surface.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2017 08:21

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

DJ Commie posted:

Thanks for the info, I think I'll give the vibrator a servicing, replace the old paper caps in it and see if she chooches! Any specific recommendations for vendors for the caps? I've read a lot about restoring tube gear, and this thing looks to be in great condition despite missing the logo. Even the remote head cables turn smoothly and the tubes look pretty good.

The best place for Caps is http://www.justradios.com/
Their "Bargain Bin" 630v Mylar caps are the best deal on the internet, but you might have to solder on extensions to the short leads.
http://www.justradios.com/MYLARcapacitors.html
Bob's Caps is also a good source for caps.
http://www.radioantiques.com/capacitors.html

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Jun 5, 2017

# ¿ Jun 5, 2017 07:53

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

LobsterboyX posted:

Thanks a lot, now I need one of those.

If you want one, keep an eye out for the version in a chrome plated cabinet with the WJR logo and a lightning bolt silkscreened on the front. It was a promotional giveaway from WJR-AM in Detroit and is quite rare. Detrola was a local Detroit company, hence the name.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2017 18:54

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 01:49

MullardEL34: Sep 30, 2008; Basking in the cathode glow

LobsterboyX posted:

I love this kind of stuff! That's awesome.

Got one!

I paid more for this than any radio I've ever bought - a whole $50 and its all your fault! I'd say its worth it, because it fires right up and plays great. I was listening to the local AM oldies station 1260 - It's really great that LA has an oldies station on AM again, sadly there are few really cool songs, they focus mostly on jazz standards which doesn't thrill me nearly as much.

in other news, I got married!

Congrats Dude, on the Detrola, (and the marriage!)

You got one of the early ones that still had the JAN (Joint-Army-Navy) MILSPEC handle attached!
One thing. No matter how good your 568 plays now, the main electrolytic filter capacitor can is a dual section Mallory or Sprague time-bomb that will short sooner rather than later. Even if you don't want to recap the whole radio, just replace the two electrolytic caps in that can. There is plenty of space under the chassis to do so.

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Nov 27, 2017

# ¿ Nov 27, 2017 08:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Tome 2. (I'm much less intersting now)